Bastogne: The Story of the First Eight Days - US Army Center Of ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

130 BASTOGNE stayed in their holes without flinching. They now had all the best of it because the village was blazing from many fires set by the artillery. Their foxholes were in heavy shadow while the snow-suited German infantry were highlighted as they came across the open spaces. The general assault was quickly checked by bullet fire but enemy parties got a lodgment in the houses at the lower end of the village and pushed slowly northward!9 Along Team O'Hara's front things had quieted well before midnight. The enemy advance into the fire-lighted area was checked and then driven back by machine-gun and rifle fire. Later, after the scene had again darkened, an enemy tank was heard advancing along the road. 50 The artillery forward observer fired the 75mm. gun from his tank and a 105mni. assault gun fired in the direction of the rumble. Second Lieutenant Sherwood D. Wishart, tank platoon leader, reported that night that he was certain his shells had bounced off and the tank had backed away. But he had scored a bull's-eye in the darkness and in the morning the tank-a Mark IV -was found sitting to the left of the road with a 75mm. hole clear through it. 51 Not a single body was found on the ground which had been held by the enemy infantry, though the snow bore many other marks of death and confusion. The German medical units had done their tasks well. U Soon after dawn of December 24 Colonel Harper went down to look at his lines. He sent a patrol to the hill where Lieutenant Morrison had been and found it was still in enemy hands. His own men still held most of Marvie though the Germans were in some houses in the south of the village. Five men had been killed and seven wounded in the fighting there and one and one-half platoons had been wiped out on the hill. There were no further developments in the situation during the morning. 58 At 0900 a patrol from Colonel O'Hara's force went to the old roadblock position and found that the enemy had withdrawn except for two Germans who were sitting fully exposed on a nearby pile of beets. They shot the two beet sitters and this drew machine-gun fire on themselves. So they pulled back. 54 At 1340 six P-47s bombed Marvie, dropping six SOD-pound bombs among the American positions. Then they came in over
THE SECOND MARVIE ATTACK 131 the housetops and strafed the streets with caliber .50 fire. Colonel Harper was walking through the streets when the first bomb fell. Even as he jumped for a foxhole he saw that there were two cerise-colored panels clearly showing where the front of the position was. 55 He thought he saw one of the bombs hit among a patrol that was working through the south of the village toward Hill 500 and he sent two runners after the patrol to see if any damage had been done. Then he walked in the same direction. A German wearing a dirty snow suit dodged out of one house and into another so that he could get into a position from which he could fire on the patrol. Harper fired his M 1 at the house in order to warn the patrol. The patrol, which seemed OK from the bombing, went to work on the house too, but on receiving riRe fire from the south of the village, they came on back. 56 During their brief reconnaissance they had seen a German tank completely camouRaged as a haystack except that the Germans had made the error of leaving the gun muzzle sticking out of the hay. Colonel Harper went to the one Sherman tank remaining in the village and gave the gunner the target-just beyond the last houses. 57 He continued on to the tanks of Team O'Hara along the Wiltz road and told them to start pounding the tank and the houses in the lower part of Marvie which concealed the German infantry. With their first fire the Shermans got direct hits on the tank and blew the hay away. 58 They kept on blasting it and the crews thought they knocked it out. Major Galbreaith (2d Battalion Exec, 327th) said, however, that he saw the tank get away under its own power. At 1645. the P-47 planes returned again and attacked Marvie with bombs and bullets. 59 At 1945 Bastogne was bombed and strafed by several enemy planes.6o At 1800, December 24, Colonel Harper was told that he was in command of the perimeter all the way from Marvie to northwest of Hemroulle. Colonel Harper said to General Higgins, "Look at it! This is half of the Division perimeter." General Higgins replied, "It's all yours. Do what you can with it. There isn't any other solution."61
Page 1:
ASTOGNE THEFIRST EIGHTDAYS S. L. A.
Page 8 and 9:
RUNNING BA'ITLE FmsT ACTION AT MARV
Page 11 and 12:
UNITS, COMMANDERS, STAFF MEMBERS, A
Page 13 and 14:
2D BA'ITALION (Companies D, E, F an
Page 15 and 16:
54m ARMORED INPANTRY BATI'ALION (LE
Page 17 and 18:
CHAPTER 1 THE SITUATION THE SIEGE O
Page 19 and 20:
otal Extent of the Bulge [ 3 1
Page 21:
THE SITUATION 5 penetrated the posi
Page 25:
THE CONCENTRATION ON BASTOGNE 9 tow
Page 30 and 31:
14 BASTOGNE bat Command B continued
Page 32:
16 BASTOGNE While there was still l
Page 35 and 36:
THE CONCENTRATION ON BASTOGNE 19 In
Page 37 and 38:
THE CONCENTRATION ON BASTOGNE 21 th
Page 40:
24 BASTOGNE tions over, Lieutenant
Page 44 and 45:
28 BASTOGNE north and west and goin
Page 47:
FIRST MEETING WITH THE ENEMY 31 nin
Page 52 and 53:
36 BASTOGNE own fight. He had alrea
Page 54 and 55:
38 BASTOGNE make it easily possible
Page 57 and 58:
EAST OF BASTOGNE 41 someone walking
Page 59 and 60:
EAST OF BASTOGNE 43 fire, his own t
Page 61 and 62:
EAST OF BASTOGNE 45 O'Hara of Comba
Page 63 and 64:
EAST OF BASTOGNE 47 Map 7
Page 66 and 67:
50 BASTOGNE pressed in against the
Page 69 and 70:
TEAM DESOBRY AT NOVILLE 53 clog the
Page 71 and 72:
TEAM DESOBRY AT NOVILLE 55 knocked
Page 73:
TEAM DESOBRY AT NOVILLE 57 points o
Page 76 and 77:
60 BASTOGNE the power of the Gennan
Page 78 and 79:
CHAPTER 8 ATTACK AND WITHDRAWAL COL
Page 80 and 81:
64 BASTOGNE losses to the enemy. Fr
Page 82 and 83:
66 BASTOGNE Colonel Sink, having ca
Page 84 and 85:
68 BASTOGNE and decided thatthis mu
Page 86:
70 BASTOGNE denly realizing that it
Page 89 and 90:
I T CHAPTER 10 THE REPULSE WAS A NI
Page 92:
76 BASTOGNE twenty minutes. 1o Pris
Page 96 and 97: 80 BASTOGNE pushing rightward towar
Page 98 and 99: 82 BASTOGNE of the darkness and the
Page 101: THE REPULSE 85 of the enemy were ca
Page 105 and 106: RUNNING BAITLE 89 drivers were alre
Page 108 and 109: 92 BASTOGNE ited attack forward to
Page 111: RUNNING BATTLE 95 tain William G. S
Page 114: 98 BASTOGNE aged or destroyed many
Page 117 and 118: FIRST ACTION AT MARVIE 101 At 1125,
Page 119: ACTION AT MARVIE 20 DECEMBER o soo
Page 122 and 123: 106 BASTOGNE During all that time,
Page 124 and 125: 108 BASTOGNE the driver to make for
Page 126 and 127: no BASTOGNE Now, on the 21st, McAul
Page 129: THE RESPITE 113 Later in the mornin
Page 132 and 133: 116 BASTOGNE Division Headquarters.
Page 134: 118 BASTOGNE The main event for tha
Page 138 and 139: 122 BASTOGNE slowly. The German inf
Page 142: 126 BASTOGNE provide a target for t
Page 148: 132 BASTOGNE Higgins reasoned that
Page 153: CHAPTER 17 SUPPLIES ARRIVE 1 FROM D
Page 160 and 161: 144 BASTOGNE was always Team O'Hara
Page 163 and 164: CHAPTER 19 WEST OF BASTOGNE FOR SIX
Page 165: WEST OF BASTOGNE 149 they guessed t
Page 168 and 169: 152 BASTOGNE tered a small detachme
Page 170: 154 BASTOGNB left Bank of the high
Page 173: CHRISTMAS. EVE 157 usual pressure f
Page 176 and 177: 160 BASTOGNE heavy aitillery fire a
Page 178 and 179: 162 BASTOGNE pinned them down with
Page 180: 164 BASTOGNE north and northwest. U
Page 183 and 184: BATTLE A1 CHAMPS ZS DECEMBER I PHAS
Page 185 and 186: CHRISTMAS EVE 169 of Champs, but by
Page 188: 172 BASTOGNE tanks moved in among t
Page 193 and 194: THE ENEMY STORY 177 The onfall of X
Page 195: THE. ENEMY STORY 179 terence produc
Page 199:
THE ENEMY STORY 183 he was constrai
Page 202 and 203:
186 BASTOGNE at Neffe was something
Page 204:
.... 00 00 Map 27: Destruction of t
Page 207 and 208:
THE ENEMY STORY 191 concluded that
Page 209:
THE ENEMY STORY 193 he was temporar
Page 214:
198 BASTOGNE grenadier Division got
Page 217 and 218:
KEY TO NOTES 201 M45A-Narrative Sum
Page 226 and 227:
210 BASTOGNE 22 Kinnard and Danahy
Page 230 and 231:
214 BASTOGNE and 84 enlisted men wo
Page 232 and 233:
2. Colonel (now Brigadier Generall
Page 234 and 235:
4. Brigadier General (now Major Gen
Page 236 and 237:
6. Lieutenant Colonel Paul A. Danah
Page 238:
8. Lieutenant Colonel (now Colon el
Page 243 and 244:
J 3 and J 4. Bomb damage in Bastogn
Page 245 and 246:
16. Vehicle in Bastogne camouflaged
Page 248 and 249:
[ 232 ]
Page 250 and 251:
[ 234 ] .. •
Page 252 and 253:
2 J. Neffe, scene of heavy flghting
Page 254 and 255:
23 (top'. Wounded in the hospitals
Page 256 and 257:
[ 240 ]
Page 258:
[ 242]
Page 261 and 262:
29. Command Post of Company F, 327t
Page 264:
32 (top). Members of the 101 st Air
Page 269 and 270:
37. Pine plantation near Bastogne,
Page 273 and 274:
40. Men on guard in a pine plantati
Page 275 and 276:
42. Colonel Danahy, General McAulif
Page 284:
PIN:100429-000
show all

Bastogne: The Story of the First Eight Days - US Army Center Of ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?